Zendaya Was Nervous Shooting ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Psyched Herself Out'

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to getting a shot ready on a film set. You’ve got to line up the shot, set the lighting, make sure any props and set pieces are in the correct places, and you’ve got to do it all while adhering to a schedule. Once the camera and sound are rolling, you want to get as much as you can, and hopefully, move on as soon as possible, with work you are all satisfied with. That can be stressful on any set. A big budget joint, though?! Gotta be a million times worse.

Not only are the stakes higher due to large injections of stanky cash that are expected to at least be recouped, but if the trades smell a failure, they will dissect every aspect of production they can get information on. The last thing you want out there is that the movie couldn’t shoot on time because you couldn’t say your dang lines. Can you imagine?! The movie could possibly move on by firing you and quickly finding a replacement, but that will be a story, too!

Luckily for Zendaya, what could have been an embarrassing story is more of a fun and relatable anecdote. The Euphoria actor recently sat down with Josh Horowitz of Happy, Sad, Confused to talk about The Odyssey, and she discussed the pressures of working with Christopher Nolan for the first time. “Here’s the thing. I had my lines and I wanted to have them so down. I think I psyched myself out a little bit,” she recalled. “It was particularly cold. It was in Iceland. My mouth was just frozen. Oh, there is nothing coming out. My mouth just won’t move. Literally. It just came out like, ‘Blah blah blah.’ So embarrassing.” Yikes!

However, the near gaf did not ruin her experience on the film. In fact, she sounds like she’s taken the whole thing really well, explaining, “But I will say, I think just showing up in any situation like this… It was such a pleasure and a gift to be able to share scenes with people you’ve admired for so long. Part of you has to compartmentalize to a degree. OK, lock in; we’re working. But I was so moved and excited to be there and wanted to do my best work.”

Zendaya is someone I have served in my many years as a Broadway bartender, and I can confirm that she is as chill as she presents herself in interviews. You can tell a lot about someone by how they treat the service staff, and Zendaya asked to stay in our workspace between shows and could not have been kinder. We weren’t, like, hanging out and taking selfies, but she was kind, polite, and grateful that we allowed the disruption. So, anytime I see her say something that sounds… very human, it just makes me smile.